Deprivation
by Fairytale Warrior
Summary: The new winter spirit has been causing problems on a different scale. With snow and bodies lining up, children deprived of the gaurdians' magic, and Jack buzzing back and forth over the globe faster than Santa in one night, they decide a discussion is in order. But they aren't prepared for the answers their youngest member gives them...


_This has been sitting on my computer for a while so I thought I'd share it._

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><p>Deprivation:<p>

Jack looked them over with an eye of exasperation, stuffed with exhaustion and a pressing need for sleep. As an immortal being the desire to rest was much less pressing, but, as a seasonal spirit working overtime the natural drive had become more desirable than it normally would have been. Unlike Tooth and Sandy, there were times when _he_ had to work both night and day, presenting snow and winter to the lands on the western hemisphere he could reach 'round the clock. And while he claimed he had no "rules" and "no responsibility" he, in all truths, had more than the other guardians likely did. He had _lives _resting in his pale hands. The yeti's, the penguins, the reindeer, and the polar bears- they all depended on his snow for survival. And the humans too; if he allowed a single blizzard to go unattended he could say goodbye to whatever unfortunate town stood in its way. At least he didn't have to worry as much about the faith thing; not too many people believed in him anyway.

Bunnymund's ears had dropped to either side of his head and he was glaring heatedly at the icy boy, the same one that had delivered a few minor blizzards on the day of Easter a few days ago. It wasn't a _catastrophic _problem, not like the one in 1968, but it had still made his job sore and a few eggs had never been found. And, as though to fuel his fiery anger, Jack had arrived to this month's meeting 25 minutes _late_.

Admittedly Bunny wasn't the only one getting tired of Jack's supposed "irresponsible" behavior. North knew he was spreading blizzards of large magnitudes around the western hemisphere, particularly in Germany and Russia, and he wasn't very happy to find several people had died in them. He was at least thankful they were not children but a death was a death nonetheless. Sandy had a difficult time spreading his dreams through the thick storms that swept through Sweden on their way to Greenland. Further than that, Tooth's fairies were unable to reach the children's homes. This left believers dropping off the globe like falling grains of sand.

Why did MiM have to choose this _child _for such a job?

Tonight's meeting had moved from being about how to get back their believers to how to get Jack to stop it, lecturing the tired teen about his poor performance.

Needless to say, Jack Frost was not particularly pleased by all of this. He didn't exactly have a choice about these kind of storms and it wasn't like he enjoyed spreading them across 50% of the globe during his season in this manner. He preferred the freedom he got when the human's _weren't _spilling oil all over his snow and when their global warming _wasn't_ melting his ice in the pole. Speaking of which, he should probably add a few more layers in sector 12…

"_Jack!_" he flinched at the sound of North's thunderous voice and the slam of his meaty hands on the table, "are you even _listening _to me?" Woah, North looked intimidating when he was angry. Jack, too tired to react, blinked at him with silenced irritation, like good ol' St. Nick was the child to be lectured.

"Jack," Tooth took over, flitting towards him and excavating herself from the fairies she'd been speaking with to look at him sternly, "this is serious."

Sandy nodded beside her but Jack was thankful to notice the patience in the little man's eyes. The Guardian of dreams had probably noticed the moment Jack flew in how tired he was and he'd been eyeing him throughout the lecture.

When the spirit of winter continued to remain speechless, blatantly refusing to apologize for things he could not control, Bunnymund stood up.

"I can't imagine what the ol' blighter in the moon was thinking when he made yah, buddy, but I was hopin' it was for something better than this," he stepped towards the silver haired "teen", perched at eye-level on his staff at the end of the table, "Yah do nothin' but cause the rest of us hard workin' brumbies trouble." Hard green eyes met steely blue as he growled into Jack's face, ignoring the frantic movements made by Sandy to stop, "in other words; yah're pretty damn useless, mate. Nay, I'd say yah're more of a hazard." The raging rabbit jabbed a finger into Frost's chest, satisfied to see him flinch, "_this _is why yah should _never _have been chosen to be a guardian."

Jack wanted to agree with him, but, at the same time, he was too tired and sore for even that. Curse those frost giants for attacking him out of the blue, didn't they know that without him they'd die? Now he had three broken ribs on _top _of his exhaustion.

Either unable or unwilling to speak Jack Frost sat on his staff, looked Bunny in the eye, and said nothing. Not until the window was thrown open and the enormous rabbit jumped back away from the frost and cold as a pudgy blue penguin with a satchel draped over it's shoulder dropped to the floor at the foot of Jack's staff. The other guardians were on their feet in moments, confused once they saw the blue figure on the floor.

"Aha, there you are Jack, I've been looking everywhere!" it said, looking up at the guardian.

Finally the teen yawned and responded, "Gunter? What's up?"

The little winter sprite stood up and glared at the boy, bouncing on its flippers almost frantically, "nothing, obviously!" Jack turned to him fully, ignoring the other guardians in favor of the small messenger penguin. "The blizzard scheduled for Munich is 15 minutes late now, Frost! And the ice caps are only getting smaller!" he began tallying things off, slapping one flipper on the other, "sections 14, 238, 532, 2, and 38 all need a frosting and quadrants 98, 23, and 18 are past their due date for snow!" Frustrated and irritable, just as Jack was, the creature reached over to slap at his staff. Before the flipper could touch it froze, encased in an unforgiving block of ice. Still, the penguin seemed unphased, "what have you been doing here?! There are dying jackalopes and polar bears while you're here taking a break and chilling out."

Growing tired of the little thing's constant yabbering Jack swooped down with all the grace and balance of the winter spirit he was, scooping the creature up and setting it on his lap. He proceeded to grab its cheeks and pull, effectively hindering its ability to form comprehensible words as its master looked on with icy indifference.

"You honestly think I don't know that already?" he asked it, deadpan, "I've been here tending to my _other _job. When these guys are either a) finished lecturing me, b) done stripping me of a title I never really wanted or c) both I'll get back to the spread." The others were looking on in surprise; Jack was expecting that? Rather, he was waiting for it?

The exhaustion on his face visibly intensified as he thought of all the work he had yet to do. This stress was enormous, it weighed on his shoulders with an intensity rival to the sun and he just didn't have the energy for anything else anymore.

"eresh na tyme," Gunter said as best he could, "the cahs ah 'eltin'" At this Jack raised an eye brow and released him. The penguin plopped onto the table and looked up at its master, the silver haired boy's eyes half lidded and uncaring above him.

"There is no time, the caps are melting," he gave Jack a beady look, "they're melting faster than they can be frozen and the animals are dying because of it. The blizzard you sent through Sweden helped a little but I'm scared it might not have been enough." The penguin made a sad face, looking down and its webbed feet, "my own brethren are dying too."

North's eyes widen a little as he suddenly understood. Tooth put her hands over her mouth and Sandy looked as though he'd known this would happen. Bunnymund couldn't say anything. He'd known that Jack's blizzard had killed a few people, courtesy of North, but he had never realized just how much more was resting on the teen, how many more lives were being kept alive.

Putting a hand on the penguin's head the teen looks at North, "those people chose to drink too much alcohol and drove themselves into a tree," he said calmly. "You're right that ultimately my blizzard is what killed them but if it hadn't they would all have slowly bled to death," his eyes are dull. "I'm not sure what you expect me to be able to do, but if you want now is the time to renounce my position as a guardian."

Gunter pulls himself together and grabs at Jack's blue hoodie, trying to pull him towards the window. But his master has his eyes set on the jolly man, waiting with a steely, 300 year old gaze that says it honestly could not care what he has to say.

"That," the older guardian says, "is not my choice."

Jack just nods and turns, soaring out of the room with Gunter clinging to his back and letting the windows close behind him. He has work to do and it's never been as serious as it is right now.

He leaves some clouds over the north to spread fresh snow in his wake, hoping to give the hot yeti's and reindeer some comfort.

They are left to ponder the reality of the melting ice.

They are left to wonder how much that must hurt.

And its scary when none of them know what to do about it without hurting the humans in some way.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. :)<em>


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